Debris lines the path at Buffalo Bayou park after massive flooding this week in Houston. At least 20 people have been killed across Texas and Oklahoma after severe weather, including catastrophic flooding and tornadoes, struck over the past several days, with more rain expected.
Reuters/Dallas
Storms bringing as much as seven inches (17.8cm) of rain drenched North Texas overnight, prompting hundreds of calls for emergency assistance and adding to the woes of the state where at least 20 people have been killed in severe weather this week.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for an area from Central Texas into Kansas, with the additional rainfall swelling Texas rivers already at dangerously high levels.
The 7” in north Texas from Thursday morning into Friday comes after storms dumped as much as 11” (28cm) overnight on Monday in the Houston area, where more than 4,000 structures were damaged in floods.
Hundreds of people spent the night in evacuation shelters across Texas as this week’s floods turned streets into rivers, ripped homes off their foundations and swept over thousands of vehicles.
The Brazos River overflowed its banks about 30 miles (50km) west of Fort Worth, with hundreds of people leaving their homes in low-lying areas.
Police and fire crews were called out to help scores of people trapped in cars and houses by rushing water.
“Some of those rescues have come from cars driving into water and getting stuck, and others are homes which have become inundated with water,” said Jamie Moore, the emergency management director for Johnson County, southwest of Fort Worth.
In central Texas overnight, Travis County firefighters rescued 21 people from a drifting houseboat while Johnson County emergency workers rescued 14 drivers and residents.
No injuries were reported, officials said.
Before Thursday night’s storm, Texas climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said that so far in May the state had received 7.54” (19cm) of rainfall on average.
That breaks the record of 6.66” (17cm) set in June 2004, based on records dating to 1895, according to Nielsen-Gammon of the Office of the Texas State Climatologist at Texas A&M University.
“It has been ridiculous,” Nielsen-Gammon said.
In flood-stricken Wimberley, near where at least seven people have been killed in floods, residents took time out from search and clean-up efforts for a graduation ceremony at their high school.
“Watching our kids for the past three days come and pick up shovels and go to neighbourhoods and step in and help with clean up has just been awesome,” said school district superintendent Dwain York.
The city of Wharton, about 60 miles (100km) southwest of Houston, issued a voluntary evacuation notice for about 300 homes along the Colorado River, where water was expected to rise throughout the day.
The body of a man was found on the banks of the Blanco River in San Marcos, authorities said late on Thursday.
The man, who was discovered among flood debris, was not yet identified, according to Hays County officials.
The body of a boy was recovered on Wednesday near San Marcos, Hays County officials said.
The boy was thought to have been swept away in Blanco River floods that ripped houses off their foundations.
The new storms could hinder rescue workers searching for those washed away along the river.
“We are not expecting another surge of the river, but it is going to shift debris piles,” Kharley Smith, the county’s emergency management co-ordinator, told a news conference.
President Barack Obama has pledged federal support and said the government had been working with local officials.
“They appear to have the assets they need at this stage to respond, but there’s going to be a lot of rebuilding,” Obama said in Miami on Thursday during a tour of the National Hurricane Centre.
There was no damage estimate available for Texas, which has a $1.4tn-a-year economy and is the country’s leading domestic source of energy
